Never Eat Alone, EXPANDED
� � � UPDATED
And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time T ime
KEITH FERR AZZI AND
TAHL RAZ R AZ
C R OW N
B U S I N E S S
Copyright © 2005, 2014 by Keith Ferrazzi All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Crown Business, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company C ompany,, New York. York. www.crownpublishing.com CROWN BUSINESS is a trademark and CROWN and the Rising Sun colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC. Crown Business books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions or corporate use. Special editions, including personalized covers, excerpts of existing books, or books with corporate logos, can be created in large quantities for special needs. For more information, contact Premium Sales at (212) 572-2232 572-2232 or e-mail e-mail specialmarkets@randomh
[email protected] ouse.com. m. Library of Congress Cataloging-inCataloging- in-Publication Publication Data [CIP data TK] ISBN 978-0978-0-385385-3466534665-88 eBook ISBN 978-0978-0-385385-34666 34666--5 Printed in the United States of America Book design by Fern Cutler de Vicq Jack Ja cket et de si sigg n by Jack Ja cket et ph phot otog og ra raph ph s by
Preface
O
ne hour from Salt Lake City, in a Utah town called Eden, is a breathtaking vista of snow, trees, and sky called Powder Mountain. In 2013, a group of remarkable twentysomethings raised $40 mil million lion to purchase the 10,000-acre site. On it i t they’ they’re re going to build an eco-retreat eco-retreat and second home (or third or fourth or �f h) for successful entrepreneurs who want to make the world better. It’ss an audacious vision. It’ v ision. Te story of how these young upstarts made it happen is the �nest example example I k now of the principals, mind-sets, mindsets, and practices of this book come to life. In 2008, 2008 , Eliot Bisnow, Bisnow, then twentyt wenty-two, two, had been hustling hustli ng successfully as an ad salesman for his father’s father’s small ee-mail mail newsl newsletter etter business—so business— so successfully that the company had grown beyond their ability to manage and grow it. Bisnow knew he had a knowledge problem, but he didn’t think “business school.” A fer all, he was in the weeds and needed answers yesterday. Reading Never Eat Alone at Alone at the time pushed him to reframe
xii
Preface
help a rapidly growing business. Tis wasn’t a k nowledge problem. It was a people problem, with a people solution. Just as the book prescribed, he created a Relationship Action Plan listing all his prospects, top entrepreneurs who could share with him the lessons of their success. Ten he hit the phone for cold-calling coldcalling with an off er er so generous they couldn’t refuse: an all-expensesallexpenses-paid paid ski weekend (Bisnow charged $15K to his own credit card to make it happen) where they could rub shoulders with fellow successful entrepreneurs and mentor young up-andup- andcomers—chie comers— chie�y, Bisnow—who Bisnow—who were bent not just on �nancial successs but on making succes maki ng a positive social impact. A free weekend ski trip and an opportunity to change the world? I sure would have said yes—in yes— in fact, I probably would have paid to attend. As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one, and boom! , Bisnow had a new venture. Over the course of a few years, the retreats retrea ts grew into i nto a thriving thrivi ng event event business called Summit Series, with both for-pro for-pro�t and nonpro�t wings. Summit isn’t just in the business of helping launch entrepreneurs. It’s in the business of creating community, the most valuable form of social capital—the capital—the intimate, supportive relationships that spur collaboration while deeply satisfying our human need for connection, belonging, and meaning. Otherwise put, “a lifelong community of colleagues, contacts, friends, and mentors.” What the past decade of social science research tells us is that satisfying these relational needs isn’t just about some so f notion of “the good life”; these are the hard prerequisites for creativity, innovation, progress—and, progress—and, at the end of that chain, pro �t. Now Summit Series is making a permanent home in Powder Mountain, where longtime Summit notables like billionaire in vestorr Peter vesto Peter Tiel are among those who dropped up to $2 million mill ion apiece for their own plots of land. Te move underlines the likely
Preface
xiii
Bisnow’ss story is an inspiring walk Bisnow’ wal k through the t he lessons lessons of this book: generosity in relationships, above all; audacity; social arbitrage; blending the person personal al and professio professional; nal; connecting through passions; passio ns; giving givi ng back; having fun. Although I’d really like to, I can’t take credit for Summit Series. I am only a lucky participant in what Bisnow and his group have created. But I can honestly crow that Bisnow acknowledges Never Eat Alone as Alone as the t he operating operating manual that helped him to shape and execute his vision. v ision. And he’s he’s one of thousands whom I’ve heard from who have built not just a career but entire organizations on the philosophy and precepts found in the book. Here’s Summit’s own informal code of conduct: 1. Go on a Learning Safari: Everyone has something to teach. Everyone has something to learn. Take an intellectual, spiritual, and creative journey. 2. Build Friendshi Friendships: ps: Summit Series isn’t about networking; it’s about building lifelong friends. Te people around you are amazing. Get to know k now them. 3. Embrace Synchronicity: Te unexpected moments are o fen the most meaningful. meaningfu l. Embrace them. 4. Show Love: Summit Series is about character, not résumés. Show love to the start-ups, start-ups, and don’t fanboy the big-timers. big- timers. 5. Have Fun: If it’s not fun, it doesn’t count.
Welcome to the Social Era What the success of Bisnow and his community—and community— and that of the many other thousands who have written to me with their success Alone was much more than my stories—tells stories— tells me is that Never Eat Alone was
xiv
Preface
in fact, shaped by forces much larger than what was afoot on our local golf course, where I learned so much as a caddy. changi ng me with it it— —or maybe I Te world was changing, and changing had the right genetic code to thrive in this new ecosystem. Either way, this book turned out to be the �eld guide for an entirely new era of business. In the decade since, I’ve built a company to help our clients thrive amid the throttle of change by building and leveraging better relationships. Together we’ve invested heavily in studying and understanding subjects long l ef to other disciplines, such as emotion, intuition, behavior, trust, in�uence, power, reciprocity, networks, and all those things that touch on how we relate to and work with other people. Two amazing things have happened concurrently: 1. “Networking,” “Networking,” once once a d irt irtyy word, has become the lingua ling ua franca of our times, acknowledged as an inherently human pursuit—not pursuit— not ugly or exploitative, but inherent to the forces of reciprocity that drive human development and a collaborative economy. Today’s most valuable currency is social capital, de�ned as the information, expertise, trust, and total value that exist in the relationships you have and social networks to which you belong. 2. Science has validated the equation that ten years ago was just my nagging intuition i ntuition:: SUCCESS IN LIFE = (THE PEOPLE YOU MEET) + (WHAT YOU CREATE TOGETHER).
Your network is your destiny, a reality backed up by many studies in the newly emergent �elds of social networking and so-
Preface
xv
our bellies—al bellies—alll of these things t hings are determined by who we choose to interact with and how. And so, taking control of your relationships—which, relationships— which, if you’re doing it right, sometimes means giving up up control, as I’ve learned over the years and especially since having become a father—means father—means taking control of your career and your future. Te lessons in this book have never been more potent, or more important. And it’s set to get only more so. Today’ Today’ss kids pul pulll out the umbilical cord and plug in the Internet, their very earliest ea rliest consciousness shaped by constant awareness awareness and interaction with wit h the global hive. h ive. Teir social-mediasocial-media-driven driven upbringing will make them savants in some areas of relationship building, and idiots in others—and others— and I suspect they’ll be spending the next decades sorting out which is which. (Just in time for the next revolution.) Fortunately for young readers and old, this book now covers the gambit. When NEA NEA was was �rst published, a few references to cybernauts cybernauts,, my Palm Pilot, and the “revolutionary” contact management tool Plaxo were all it took to put the book at the cutting edge of technology and digital relationship management. Today social media and mobile devices have inarguably transformed how we manage relationships, create in�uence, and develop social capital. As the years passed, fans have been increasingly persistent in telling me the book needed an update if it wanted to continue to deliver on its reputation as the best all-purpose all- purpose tactical companion to building relationships. In updating Never Eat Alone, Alone, I looked to preserve much of the original content, because, frankly, it still works. I’ve added three new chapters and updated throughout to clarify and strengthen the book for the digital era. Although Alt hough the technology technolog y may have have developed, the book’ book ’s orig-
xvi
Preface
ground, ethnicity, age, or gender, so long as they provide everincreasing value to others—are others—are thankfully here to stay. Today these same cultural virtues drive the engine of social media.
How to Read Tis Book You’ll get the most from this book if your desire to learn is exceeded only by your willingness to act. Apply the principles and tactics as you read them. My operative mind-set mind-set is that whatever your age or situation, your path to greatness begins the moment you �nd the courage and the audacity to reach out with generosity. Relationship development development and social savoir faire fai re require active learning. If you wait until you’re a master to dive in, you’ll waste months or years, if you you ever get started. Heree are just a few things Her thi ngs that this book will w ill allow you to do: 1. Create a ful �lling, authentic, eff ective ective networking strategy that lasts a lifetime 2. Build and align social capital to achieve ever more ambitious goals 3. Combine strategy and a nd serendipity serendipity to keep in constant consta nt contact contact with a wide network of people 4. Filter and prioritize your relationships for qual quality ity interchange that supports your goals and values 5. Cultivate a magnetic personal brand that has people clamoring to share information, access, and resources 6. Transl ranslate ate that brand to social media medi a to build a devoted online tribe 7. Increase your value to your network, and speci �cally to your company or clients
Preface
xvii
“ discovered” ered” and tapped for the best opportunities 9. Get “discov 10. Create a life that you love and the network to cheer you on More than half More ha lf a million mi llion readers, from high school students students to celebrated CEOs, in more than sixteen di ff erent erent countries worldwide, have achieved great things by mastering the art of working with others through Never Eat Alone. Alone. Join them.
C H A P T E R
1
Becoming a Member of the Club Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We We have to stop pretending we are individui ndividuals that can go it alone. —Margaret Wheatley
H
ow on earth did d id I get in here?” I kept asking myself in those early days as an overwhelmed �rstrst-year year student at Harvard Business School. Tere wasn’t a single accounting or � nance class in my background. Looking around me, I saw ruthlessly focused young men and women who had undergraduate degrees in business. Tey’d gone on to crunch numbers or analyze spreadsheets in the �nest �rms on Wall Street. Most were from wealthy families and had pedigrees and legacies legacies and Roman numerals in their names. na mes. Sure, I was intimidated. How was a guy like li ke me from a working-class working-class family, with a liberal arts a rts degree and a cou couple ple years at a traditional manufacturing company, going to compete with purebreds from McKinsey and Goldman Sachs who, from my perspective, seemed as if they’d been computing business data in their cribs? It was a de �ning moment in my career, and in my life. I was a country boy from southwestern Pennsylvania, raised
4
Never Eat Alone
another house from the porch of our modest home. My father worked in the local steel mill; on weekends he’d do construction. My mother cleaned the homes of the doctors and lawyers in a nearby town. My brother escaped small-town small- town life by way of the army; my sister got married in high school and moved out when I was a toddler toddler.. At HBS, all the insecurities of my youth came rushing back. You see, although we didn’t have much money, my dad and mom were set on giving me the kind of opportunities my brother and sister (from my mom’s previous marriage) never got. My parents pushed me and sacri �ced everything to get me the kind of education that only the well-towell-to-do do kids in our town could a ff ord. ord. Te memories rushed back to those days when my mother would pick me up in our beat-up beat-up blue Nova at the bus stop of the private elementary school I attended, while the other children ducked into limos and BMWs. I was teased mercilessly about our car and my polyester clothes and fake Docksiders—reminded Docksiders— reminded daily of my station in life. Te experience was a godsend in many ways, toughening my resolve and fueling my drive to succeed. It made clear to me there was a hard line between the haves and the have- nots. It made me angry to be poor. I felt excluded from what I saw as the old boys’ network. On the other hand, all those feelings pushed me to work harder than everyone around me. Hard work, I reassured myself, was one of the ways I’d beaten the odds and gotten into Harvard Business School. But there was something else that separated me from the rest of my class and gave me an advantage. I seemed to have learned something long before I arrived in Cambridge that it seemed many of my peers had not. As a kid, I caddied at the local country club for the homeown-
Becoming a Member of the Club
5
who don’t. I made an observation in those days that would alter the way I viewed the world. During those t hose long long stretches stretches on the links, lin ks, as I c arried their bags, I wa tched how the people who had reached professional professional heights unknown to my father and mother helped one another. Tey found one another jobs, they invested time and money in one another’s another’s ideas, and they made sure their t heir kids k ids got help gett getting ing into the best schools, got the t he right internships, and ultimate ulti mately ly got the best jobs. Before my eyes, I saw proof that success breeds success and, indeed, the rich do do get get richer. Teir web of friends and associates was the most potent potent club the people I c addied for for had in i n their t heir bags. Poverty, I realized, wasn’t only a lack of �nancial resour resources; ces; it was isolation from the kind of people who could help you make more of yourself. I came to believe that in som somee very speci �c ways life, like li ke golf, is a game, and that the people who know the rules, and know them well, play it best and succeed. And the rule in life that has unprecedented power is that the individual who knows the right people, for the right reasons, and utilizes the power of these relationships, can become a member of the “club,” whether he started out as a caddie or not. Tis realization came with some empowering implications. To achieve your your goals in life, l ife, I realized, it matters less how how smart you are, how much innate talent you’re born with, or even, most eye opening to me, where you came from and how much you started out with. Sure, all these are important, but they mean little if you don’t understand one thing: You can’t get there alone. In fact, you can’tt get very far at all. can’ a ll. Fortunately, I was hungry to make something of myself (and, frankly, even more terri �ed that I’d amount to nothing). Oth-
6
Never Eat Alone
I �rst began to learn about the incredible power of relationships from Mrs. Pohland. Caryl Pohland was married to the owner of the big lumberyard in our town, and her son, Brett, who was my age, was my friend. Tey went to our church. At the time, I probably probably wanted to be Brett Brett (great athlete, rich, all al l the girls gi rls falling over him). At the club, I was Mrs. Pohland’s caddie. I was the only one who cared enough, ironically, to hide her cigarettes. I busted my behind to help help her win every tournamen tournament. t. I’d walk wa lk the t he course the morning before to see where the tough pin placements were. I’d test the speed of the greens. Mrs. Pohland Pohland started racking up wins w ins lef and right. Every ladies’ day, day, I d id such a g reat job that she would brag about me to her friends. Soon, others requested me. I’d caddie thirty-six thirty-six holes a day if I could get the work, and I made sure I treated the club’s caddie master as if he were a king. My �rst year, I won the annual caddie award, which gave me the chance to caddie for Arnold Palmer when he came to play on his hometown hom etown course. Arnie started star ted out as a c addie himself at the t he Latrobe Country Club and went on to own the club as an adult. I looked up to him as a role model. He was living proof that success in golf, and in life, had nothing to do with w ith class. It was about access (yes, and talent, at least in his case). Some gained access through birth or money. Some were fantastic at what they did, like Arnold Palmer. My edge, I knew, was my initiative and drive. Arnie was inspirational proof that your past need not be prologue to your future. For years I was a de facto member of the Pohland family, splitting holidays with them and hanging out at their house nearly every day. Brett and I were inseparable, and I loved his family like my own. Mrs. Pohland made sure I got to know everyone in the club who could help me, and if she saw me slacking, slacki ng, I’d I’ d hear about
Becoming a Member of the Club
7
in life. She provided me with a simple but profound lesson about the power of generosity. When you help others, they o fen help you. “Reciprocity” is the gussiedgu ssied-up up word people use later in life li fe to describe this ageless principle. I just knew the word as “care.” We cared for each other, so we went out of our way to do nice things. Because of those days, and speci �cally that lesson, I came to realize that �rst semester at business school that Harvard’s hypercompetitive, individualistic students had it all wrong. Success in any �eld, but especially in business, is about working with with people, people, not against them. No tabulation of dollars and cents can account for one immutable immutable fact: Business is a h uman ent enterprise, erprise, driven dr iven and determined by people. It wasn’t too far into my second semester before I started jokingly reassuring myself, “How on earth did all these other people people get in here?” What many of my fellow students lacked, I discovered, were the skills and strategies that are associated with fostering and building relationships. In America, and especially in business, we’re brought up to cherish John Wayne individualism. People who consciously court others to become involved in their lives are seen as schmoozers, brownnosers, smarmy sycophants. Over the years, I l earned that the outrage outrageous ous number of misperceptions clouding those who are active relationship builders is eq ualed only by the misperc misperceptions eptions of how relationship relationship building is done properly. What I saw on the golf course—friends course—friends helping friends and families helping families they cared about— had nothing to do with manipulation or quid pro quo. Rarely was there any running tally of who did what for whom, or strategies concocted in which you give just so you could get. Over time, I came to see reaching out to people as a way to make a di ff erence erence in people’s people’s lives as well wel l as a way to explore and
8
Never Eat Alone
gave myself permission to practice it with abandon in every part of my professional and personal life. I didn’t think of this behavior as cold and impersonal, the way I thought of “networking.” I was, instead, connecting —sharing my knowledge and resources, time and energy, friends and associates, and empathy and compassion passi on in a co ntinual eff ort ort to provide value to others, while coincidentally increasing my own. Like business itself, being a connector is not about about managing managi ng transactions, transac tions, but about managing relationships. People Peo ple who instinctivel insti nctivelyy establish a st rong network network of rela rela-tionships have always created great businesses. If you strip business down to its basics, it’s still about people selling things to other people. Tat idea can get lost in the tremendous hubbub the business world perpetually stirs up around everything from brands and technology to design and price considerations in an endless search for the ultimate competitive advantage. But ask accomplished CEOs or entrepreneurs or professionals how they achieved achieve d their succe success, ss, and I guarantee you’l you’lll hear very little l ittle business jargon. What you will mostly hear about are the people who helped pave their way, if they are being honest and are not too caught up in their own success. Afer decades of successfully applying the power of relationships in my own life and career, I’ve come to believe that connecting is one of the most important business—and business— and life—skill life—skill sets you’l’lll ever learn. Why? Because, �at out, people do business with you people they know and like. Careers—in Careers—in every imaginable �eld— work the same way. Even our overall well-being well- being and sense of happiness, as a library’s worth of research has shown, is dictated in large part by the support and guidance and love we get from the community we build for ourselves. It took me a while to �gure out exactly how to go about con-
Becoming a Member of the Club
9
PTA, there were a lot of other people whose help I would need along the way.
Self-Help: SelfHelp: A Misnome Mi snomerr How do you turn How t urn an acquaintance into i nto a f riend riend?? How can you get other people to become emotionally invested in your advancement? Why are there some lucky schmos who always leave business conferences with months’ worth of lunch dates and a dozen potential new associates, while others leave only with indigestion? Where are the places you go to meet the kind of people who could most impact your life? From my earliest days growing up in Latrobe, I found myself absorbing wisdom and advice from every source imaginable— friends, books, neighbors, teachers, family. My thirst to reach out was almost unquenchable. But in business, I found nothing came close to the impact of mentors. At every stage in my career, I sought out the most successful people around me and asked for their help and guidance. gu idance. I �rst learned the value of mentors from a local lawyer named George Love. He and the town’s stockbroker, Walt Saling, took me under their wings. I was riveted by their stories of professional life and their nuggets of street-smart street- smart wisdom. My ambitions were sown in the fertile soil of George’s and Walt’s rambling business escapades, and ever since, I’ve been on the lookout for others who could teach or inspire me. Later in life, as I rubbed shoulders with business leaders, store owners, politicians, and movers and shakers of all stripes, I started to gain a sense of how our country’s most successful people reach out to others, and how they invite those people’s help in accomplishing their goals. I learned that real networking networking was about �nding ways to make
10
Never Eat Alone
tough-minded principles that made this sofhearted philosophy tough-minded possible. Tese principles would ultimately help me achieve things I didn’t think thin k I was capable of. Tey would lead me me to opportunities opportunit ies otherwise hidde h idden n to a person of my upbringing, and they’d t hey’d come to my aid when I failed, as we all do on occasion. I was never in moree dire need of that mor t hat aid than during my � �rst job out of business school at Deloitte & Touche Consulting. By conventio conventional nal standards, sta ndards, I wa s an awful entryentry-level level consultant. Put me in front of a spreadsheet and my eyes glaze over, which is what happened when I found myself on my �rst project, huddled in a cramped, windowless room in the middle of suburbia, �les stretching from �oor to ceiling, ceili ng, poring over a sea of data with a few other �rstrst-year year consultants. I tried; I really did. But I just couldn’ couldn’t. t. I was convinced convinced boredom boredom that that bad was lethal. lethal. I was clearly well on my way to getting �red or quitting. Luckily, I had already applied some of the very rules of networking that I was still in the process of learning. In my spare time, when I wasn’t painfully attempting to analyze some dataridden worksheet, I reached out to ex-classmates, ex- classmates, professors, old bosses, and anyone who might stand to bene �t from a relationship with Deloitte. I spent my weekends giving speeches at small conferen confe rences ces around the country on a va riety of subj subjects ects I ha d learned at Harvard, mostly under the tutelage of Len Schlessinger (to whom I owe my speaking style today). All this in an attempt to drum up both business and buzz for my new company. I had mentors throughout the organization, including the CEO, Pat Loconto. Still, my �rst annual review was devastating. I received low marks for not doing what I was asked to do with the gusto and focus that was expected of me. But my supervisors, with whom I
Becoming a Member of the Club
11
My mentors gave me a $150,000 expense account to do what I had already been doing: developing business, representing the �rm with speaking engagements, and reaching out to the press and business world in ways that would strengthen Deloitte’s presence in the marketplace. My supervisors’ belief in me paid o ff . Within a y ear ear,, the t he company’ company’ss brand recognition in the line l ine of business on which I focused (reengineering) moved from bottom of the consulting pack to one of the top of the industry, achieving a growth rate the company had never known (though, of course, it wasn’t all my doing). I went on to become the company’s chief marketing officer (CMO (CMO) and the t he youngest person ever tapped for partner. And I was having a blast—the blast— the work was fun, exciting, interesting. inter esting. Everything Everyt hing you could want in a job. While my career was in full ful l throttle, thrott le, in some ways ways it it all al l seemed like a lucky accident. In fact, for many years, I couldn’t see exactly where my professional trajectory would take me—a me— afer Deloitte, a crazy quilt of top-leve top-levell jobs culminating cul minating in my founding founding my own company. It’s only today, looking in the rearview mirror, that it makes enormous sense. From Deloitte, I became the youngest chief marketing o ffi cer in the Fortune 500 at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Ten I went on to become CEO of a Knowledge Universe (Michael Milken)– funded video game company, and now, founder of my own company, Ferrazzi Greenlight, a research institute, consultancy, and coaching �rm focused on changing behavior in the workplaces of the world’s most prestigious organizations. I zigged and zagged my way to the top. Every time I contemplated a move or needed advice, I turned to the circle of friends I had created around me. At �rst I tried tr ied to draw attention away away from my people skills skil ls for fear that they were somehow inferior to other more “respectable” business abilities. But as I got older, everyone from well-known well-known
12
Never Eat Alone
business leaders under forty, and the World Economic Forum labeled me as a Global Leader for Tomorrow. Senator Hillary Clinton asked me to use my connecting skills to raise money for her favorite nonpro�t organization, organi zation, Save America’ Amer ica’ss Treasures. Treasures. Friends and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies asked if I could help them throw more intimate dinner parties for their lead prospects and clients in key regions of the country. MBA students sent me emails hungry to learn the people skills their business schools weren’t teaching them. Tose turned into formal training train ing courses now taught at the most prestigious MBA programs in America. Te underlying “sofer” skills I used to arrive at my success, I learned, were something others could bene �t from learning. Of course, building a web of relationships isn’t the only thing you need to do to be successful. But building a career, and a life, with the help and support support of friends f riends and family and a nd associates associates has some incredible incredible virtues. vi rtues. 1. It’s never boring. Time-consuming, Time-consuming, sometimes; demanding, perhaps. But dull, dul l, never. You’ You’re re always alw ays learning learn ing about yourself, other people, business, and the world, and it feels great. relationship-driven career is g ood for the com companies panies you 2. A relationship-driven work for because everyone bene�ts from your own growth— it’ss the value you bring that makes it’ make s people want to connect connect with wit h you. You You feel satisfaction satisfact ion when both your peers and a nd your organization share in your advancement. 3. Connecting— Connecting—with with the support, �exibility, and opportunities for self-development self-development that come along with it—happens it— happens to make a great deal of sense in our new work world. Te loyalty and security once off ered ered by organizations can be provided by our own network networks. s. Lifetime corpora corporate te employment employment is de ad; we’’re all f ree agents now, we now, managing our own careers across
Becoming a Member of the Club
13
surest ways to become and remain thought leaders of our respective �elds. Today, I have over 10,000 people in my phone’s contacts who willl answer when I call. Tey are there to off er wil er expertise, expert ise, jobs, help, encouragement, support, and, yes, even care and love. Te very successful people I know are, as a group, not especially talented, educated, or charming. But they all have a circle of trustworthy, talented, and inspirational inspirational peop people le whom they can call c all upon. All of this takes work. It involves a lot of sweat equity, just as it did for me back in the caddie yard. It means you have to think hard not only about yourself but also about other people. Once you’re committed to reaching out to others and asking for their help at being the best at whatever you do, you’ll realize, as I have, what a powerful way of accomplishing your goals this can be. Just as important, it will lead to a much fuller, richer life, surrounded by an ever-growing, ever-growing, vibrant network of people you care for and who care for you. Tis book outlines the secrets behind the success of so many accomplished people; they are secrets that are rarely recognized by business schools, career counselors, or therapists. By incorporating the ideas I discuss in this book, you, too, can become the center of a circle of relationships, one that will help you succeed throughout life. Of course, I’m a bit of a fanatic in my eff orts orts to connect with others. I do the things I’m going to teach you with a certain degree of, well, exuberance. But by simply reaching out to others and recognizing that no one does it alone, I believe you’ll see astounding results, quickly. Everyone has the capacity to be a co connector. nnector. Afer all, if i f a country kid from Pennsylvania can make it into the “club,” so ca n you. See you there.
